Understanding the Technology Development Process at the Early Standardization Stage

This research is aimed at developing a document content analysis method to be applied in studies of standardization and technology development. The proposed method integrates two theoretical frameworks: the co-evolutionary technology development framework and the “D-N-S” (Design, Negotiation, Sense-making) framework for anticipatory standardizing. At the backdrop of complex and diversified landscape of science and R&D efforts in the technology domain, and the repeated criticism of the weak link between R&D initiatives and standardization, it is argued that the method offered in this work helps to better understand the internal dynamics of the technology development process at the early stage of standardization or pre-standardization, which, in turn, can help mobilize and direct the R&D initiatives. To demonstrate the practical usefulness of the proposed method, this paper conducts a content analysis of the research contributions presented in the COST Action IC0905 “Techno-Economic Regulatory Framework for Radio Spectrum Access for Cognitive Radio/ Software Defined Radio” (COST-TERRA).

“Standard Bibles” and Mediators as a Way of Software Development Organizations to Cope with the Multiplicity and Plurality of Standards

This paper focuses on the appearance and implementation of process standards in software development organizations. In particular, it shows interest in the way organizations handle the plurality and multitude of process standards they are faced with in a modern working environment. The process how organizations respond to environmental challenges like the increasing demand for process standards we call metastructuring. Based on the metastructuring approach by Orlikowski et al. (1995) it explores the process of internal standard-use mediation by an in-depth single case study. The case company develops step by step a dedicated institutional entity reacting to standard complexity and customer pressure. As a result, mediators shape extensively the standard use of the employees in the case company. They develop a process library which integrates different standards. This work sheds light on how this metastructuring process is accomplished, which areas of metastructuring regarding process standards can be found and explore different types of metastructuring activities by the involved standard-use mediators.

Standardization Strategies and Their Impact on Partners' Relationships in Complex Product and Systems

In this contribution, the authors investigate the way partners involved in Complex Products and Systems (CoPS) development manage local standards. In particular, this paper analyses how this management impacts the relations between partners through their roles of leader and complementor within platforms. The results are based on a qualitative case study in the launch vehicle segment of the space sector, especially the development of the Ariane 5 and Vega European space launchers. First, the authors find that standards management reveals the firm's position in a platform as a leader or a complementor. Second, it is shown that standards can be a way for complementors to build new system skills by collaborating with platform leaders. Along with skill building, they allow a firm to challenge the dominant position of the platform leader. Third, the authors show that firms use local standards combined with alliance strategies to manage competitive tensions. Then, the paper discusses literature on standards in CoPS and on leader and complementor's positions within platforms.

Seizing Opportunities for the Support of Innovation through Committee Standards and Standardization

This paper provides insights into the key results of a research project funded by the German Institute for Standardization DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung e. V.). It investigates how German companies, in particular SMEs, can leverage committee standards to drive innovations. Whereas the impact of standardization on innovation has been acknowledged in the scientific literature from the macro-perspective, little is known on how standards and standardization can support innovation on the company level. This research builds upon findings from 40 semi-structured interviews conducted with experts from German companies in five sectors: biotechnology, nanotechnology, services, security, and mechanical engineering. The key informants are practitioners with R&D and standardization experience. The interview data are fitted into a qualitative model that explains how standards and standardization can lead to innovation, given certain contextual factors (internal and external). The analysis of this data shows that companies that use standards and are involved regularly in standardization processes are able to create six types of opportunities supporting innovation.

Born Global Market Dominators

Issues of dominance in the market place, ‘standards wars' and ‘battles for dominance' between large companies are frequently addressed by researchers and the business press alike. The existence of companies that could establish internationally dominant solutions to customers' problems within a few years after their founding is quite unknown and the reasons for their success are hardly investigated so far. Therefore, they are not covered by traditional stage models for the establishment of dominant solutions. Based on 22 cases and a new success factors model, this article shows how young companies can successfully establish their technologies as dominant solutions in the global market.

A Framework for Measuring the Deployment of Internet Protocols

Internet protocols spread to potential adopters through several successive phases of implementation, commercialization, acquisition, and adoption of the protocol. This process of protocol deployment involves several stakeholders and varies depending on the deployment environment and the protocol in question. This complexity and the lack of comprehensive measurement studies call for a further conceptualization of measuring protocol diffusion along the whole deployment process. Therefore, this article develops a framework for measuring the deployment of Internet protocols, consisting of deployment steps, deployment models, deployment measures, and data sources. The measures are further linked to each other through deployment gaps and delays. In order to demonstrate the framework, it is used to assess how a set of pre-installed protocols spread in the Finnish mobile market. The framework highlights the differences between the deployment models and the importance to use both the deployment measures and gaps in the analysis of protocol success. Furthermore, the illustrative results indicate that protocol deployment is driven by applications, and show the existence of large deployment gaps between the protocol possession and usage. The results are relevant especially to researchers interested in holistically analyzing protocol deployment and protocol developers for measuring and improving the success of their protocols.

The Effect of Pre-Existing Standards and Regulations on the Development and Diffusion of Radically New Innovations

The controversy among scientists on whether standards and regulations hamper or stimulate innovation contains too little specificity and provides too few clues for innovation managers to act upon. In this article, we underscore the importance of timing and start by focusing on the effect of pre-existing standards and regulations on the subsequent development and diffusion of product innovations. The effect is assessed in terms of the time interval between the invention of a technological principle and the introduction of the first marketable product (development phase), and the successive time interval up to the start of large-scale industrial production and diffusion (adaptation phase). The authors analyse fifty heterogeneous cases studies of radically new high-tech product innovations from the year 1850 onward. The results indicate that pre-existing standards and regulations significantly shorten the adaptation phase of innovations, an effect not found for the development phase. The shortening effect on the adaptation phase is particularly evident for radically new innovations and innovations that are an integral part of larger technological systems. As the adaptation phase is often a time- and capital-intensive phase for industry, this accelerating effect on the diffusion of innovations is highly relevant for innovation managers and policy makers.

Standards Development as Hybridization

While users in the rest of the World have been offered 3G mobile phones based on either the CDMA2000 or W-CDMA standards, users in China have the additional option of using phones based on the TD-SCDMA standard. As a technology largely developed by Chinese actors and only implemented in China, TD-SCDMA has been seen as an “indigenous innovation” orchestrated by the Chinese government and supported by Chinese firms. This paper adopts a science and technology studies (STS) framework to explore how global and national institutional and social elements have been embedded in and impacted on the artifacts of TD-SCDMA technology. Rather than being an indigenous Chinese technology, TD-SCDMA’s history exemplifies how standards and the intellectual property embedded in them lead to a complex hybridization between the global and national systems of innovation.

The Challenge of Establishing a Recognized Interdisciplinary Journal

This paper examines the impact of interdisciplinary IT standardization research by analyzing the International Journal of IT Standards and Standardization Research (JITSR). Three issues will be addressed: (1) What is the scientific impact of IT standardization research published in JITSR? (2) Are JITSR publications on IT standardization interdisciplinary, and if so, to what extent do they cite publications in other disciplines? (3) Is IT standardization research recognized as an interdisciplinary discipline, and if so, to what extent do papers in other disciplines cite JITSR publications? The authors find that although the scientific impact of JITSR is comparatively low, it is recognized in different disciplines. The findings also show that research published in JITSR is, to some extent, interdisciplinary; papers published in JITSR refer to a number of different disciplines.

Analysis of Various Structures of Standards Setting Organizations (SSOs) that Impact Tension among Members

As the field of ICT standardization has changed from a relatively static, monolithic environment into a very dynamic field in the last two decades, many formal standardization bodies, fora, consortia and other types of standards setting organizations (SSOs) have emerged. These SSOs have often competed against each other for the same application areas. To a large degree, these changes reflect developments in the field of telecommunications and IT themselves, including liberalization, globalization, rapid changes in technology, and convergence. More than ever before, firms can choose which standard setting body they want to join. Nevertheless, data shows that many firms decide to be members of many relevant bodies at the same time. The aforementioned changes and the multi-SSO memberships of a firm have differently influenced various types of stakeholders, which increases potential tension among members during standardization processes. This paper intends to study such tension and the effect influenced by the structure and processes of the standard-setting bodies themselves. A framework to analyze tension within given organizational structure and processes based on Giddens’ Structuration Theory is proposed. The appealing feature of this theory is that it is neither deterministic at the agent level nor at the structural level, but takes iterative influences between both levels as a starting point. This study shows how a SSO struggles to decrease tension among members and suggests propositions related to the tension that academia and practitioners can apply.